Late Quaternary Adaptations in the Central Rift Valley, Kenya

这笔赠款允许安布罗斯博士和他的同事进行一个 在暮光洞遗址的考古发掘季节， 位于肯尼亚裂谷的奈瓦沙盆地。先前 在现场的工作揭示了一个长期和良好的分层序列 它从更新世（冰河时代）一直延续到近代。 继续在现场工作应提供证据： 东石器时代晚期中石器时代传统的古老性 非洲和这些狩猎采集者的生存基地; 文化和适应性的变化，伴随着结束的 更新世;陶器和家庭的引进的时代 动物有了这些信息，应该可以确定 随着时间的推移，生存和定居模式的性质。 这些目标是通过挖掘和 动物、文化和其他生物遗骸的收藏。 有机质稳定碳、氮、氧同位素分析 骨头和沉积物中的无机成分 洞察环境随时间的变化。 猎人和采集者如何适应长期的 环境波动是人类学家感兴趣的问题。 考虑到这一点，需要一个详细和长期的文化 良好的古环境资料。的遗址开展 提供这样的信息。就像暮光洞一样以稀为 因此是有价值的。 这项研究是重要的见解，它将产生约 人类如何适应简单的技术水平。也是 重要的是，因为它将有助于建立科学联系， 肯尼亚.安布罗斯博士与肯尼亚科学家密切合作， 帮助训练他们，并将他们纳入他的研究。因为 在肯尼亚拥有的重要科学材料中， 加强这种双边关系的重要性。

This grant permits Dr. Ambrose and his colleagues to conduct one season of archaeological excavation at the site of Twilight Cave, located in the Naivasha Basin of Kenya's Rift Valley. Previous work at the site has revealed a long and well stratified sequence which extends from the Pleistocene (Ice Age) into recent times. Continued work at the site should provide evidence for: the antiquity of the Late Stone Age mesolithic tradition in East Africa and the subsistence base of these hunter.gatherers; the cultural and adaptive changes which accompanied the end of the Pleistocene; the age of the introduction of pottery and domestic animals. With this information it should be possible to determine the nature of subsistence and settlement patterns through time. These goals with be accomplished through excavation and collection of faunal, cultural and other biological remains. Stable carbon, nitrogen and oxygen isotope analyses of organic and inorganic fractions of bones and sediments should provide insight into environmental change over time. The question of how hunters and gatherers adapted to long term environmental fluxuation is of interest to anthropologists. Consideration of this requires a detailed and long term cultural sequence as well as good paleoenvironmental data. Sites which provide such information . as Twilight Cave does . are rare and therefore valuable. This research is important for the insights it will yield about how humans adapt at a simple level of technology. It is also important because of the scientific ties it will help build with Kenya. Dr. Ambrose has worked closely with Kenyan scientists, helped to train them, and included them in his research. Because of the important scientific materials which Kenya contains, it is valuable to strengthen this bilateral relationship.